WRC
Rallye Deutschland: Chris Atkinson leg two summary
Australian Chris Atkinson has set two stage times inside the top ten and showed a good increase in pace to be in 13th position with one leg remaining in the latest round of the World Rally Championship, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland. With this ...
Published: Aug 28, 2005, 6:59 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Australian Chris Atkinson has set two stage times inside the top ten and showed a good increase in pace to be in 13th position with one leg remaining in the latest round of the World Rally Championship, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
With this weekend being Atkinson's first event on tarmac aboard a World Rally spec Subaru Impreza, Atkinson indicated at the start of the rally that this weekend was all about gaining the experience on an unfamiliar surface and increasing his speed each day.
After finishing 15th in the opening leg yesterday, Atkinson and his West Australian co-driver Glenn Macneall was the first crew to tackle the seven stages held on a mixture of public and military roads today, which added another new challenge for the pair.
"Yesterday we took it very easy, making sure we got the feeling of the car on tarmac. Today we went up a level and the times improved quite well which is very encouraging," said Atkinson.
"By being the first car on the road the stages had a lot of loose gravel on them during the first time through (three stages were repeated throughout the day) and there are no braking marks from other drivers which made it even trickier in my tarmac debut.
"Obviously I am learning a lot and improving as I get more stages under my belt, the pace is also continually improving, however I am not about to start to take any risks. The aim is to keep improving and gain further experience on what is a very, very unfamiliar surface to me.
"I am starting to gain a good understanding of the car and have a better ability to predict how it will react in different situations on the varying levels of grip experienced in the stages.
"For me it is one step at a time to make sure that we get through tomorrow's stages cleanly and to the finish of the rally. However, I am confident that we can pick up some more pace without taking too many risks which is what I aim to do tomorrow."
Championship leader Sebastien Loeb has continued his dominance of the event to extend his lead by winning five of the seven stages contested throughout the day. With one day remaining he holds a 27 second lead over his Citroen team-mate Francois Duval, who is the only other driver to win a stage this weekend. Finnish driver Marcus Gronholm is third.
Tomorrow's final leg will feature six stages across 90 competitive kilometres on some very fast and narrow roads through the Saarland farming area.
-ca-
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rallye Deutschland SS11 results
Next article Standings after Rallye Deutschland
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
Max Verstappen puzzled by Q3 grip loss, but Austin shows how far Red Bull has progressed
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
40 min
Max Verstappen puzzled by Q3 grip loss, but Austin shows how far Red Bull has progressed
Carson Hocevar says Zane Smith feud is "pretty one-sided"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
2 h
Carson Hocevar says Zane Smith feud is "pretty one-sided"
Jack Miller says Australian GP cancellation “tough to swallow”: “It is pissing me off”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
3 h
Jack Miller says Australian GP cancellation “tough to swallow”: “It is pissing me off”
Max Verstappen reacts to COTA boss: "He can drive my car, after five laps he won't be able to walk"
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
3 h
Max Verstappen reacts to COTA boss: "He can drive my car, after five laps he won't be able to walk"
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe